This collection renews contemporary debates in phenomenology, ethics, social ontology, aesthetics, and metaphysics and broadens the scope of twentieth-century French philosophy by analyzing the works and key concepts of authors who left their marks on its genesis.

Reframing Twentieth-Century French Philosophy: The Roots of Desire, edited by Elodie Boublil, investigates the works of French philosophers who have been relegated to the margins of the canon, even if their teachings and writings have been recognized as highly influential. The contributions gather around the concept of “desire” to make sense of the French philosophical debate throughout the twentieth century. The first part of the volume investigates the concept of desire by questioning the role of reflexivity in embodiment and self-constitution. It examines specifically the works of three authors—Maine de Biran, Jean Nabert, and Jean-Louis Chrétien—to highlight their specific contribution to twentieth-century French philosophy. The second part of the volume explores desire's pre-reflective and affective dynamics that resist objectification and reflexivity by analyzing the contributions of lesser-known thinkers such as Simone Weil, Sarah Kofman, and Henri Maldiney. The last part of the volume focuses on three philosophical endeavors that aim to positively rethink the foundations of phenomenology and French philosophy: Jacques Garelli, Marc Richir, and Mikel Dufrenne.

Introduction: Anthropology or Metaphysics? Another History of 20th Century French Philosophy, by Elodie Boublil

Part I: Elucidating Desire: Embodiment and Reflexivity

Chapter 1: The Lived Body: From Maine de Biran to French Phenomenology, by Paula Lorelle

Chapter 2: Jean Nabert: A Hidden Source of French Phenomenology? by Scott Davidson

Chapter 3: The Source of Desire: Individuation and Responsive Care in Jean-Louis Chrétien’s Philosophy, by Elodie Boublil

Part II: Desire, Drives, and Imagination

Chapter 4: Seize Hold of the Hunger: Simone Weil’s Ethical Eros, by A. Rebecca Rozelle-Stone

Chapter 5: Sarah Kofman: Irony and Self-Writing as Philosophical Practice, by Melissa Theriault

Chapter 6: Henri Maldiney’s Philosophy of Existence, by Till Grohmann

Chapter 7: Rhythm and Subjectivity in Maldiney and Deleuze, by Stefan Kristensen

Part III: Desire, Cosmology, and Metaphysics

Chapter 8: The Reversibility of the Flesh: Jacques Garelli and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, by Renaud Barbaras (Translated by Elodie Boublil)

Chapter 9: Phenomenological Metaphysics in Marc Richir, by Alexander Schnell.

Chapter 10: Nature as Potentiality of the World, by Delia Popa.